Plot: Barry Allen (The Flash) is at the cinema with his wife, Iris when a giant horse monsters starts destroying the building. He saves the day but can’t stop the creature so calls on Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Green Lantern. He can’t stop it either but they do get the collar which says the creature is from the 25th Century.
Once in the future they find the stable. Horses don’t exist in the 25th century, however people wanted something to race. The convict, Eobard Thawne (Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash), offered to create a racing creature from his workshop behind bars. They were so impressed with the steeds that they granted him his freedom.
The Flash and Green Lantern ask Eobard to help but he wants a priceless sculpture in return. As it isn’t for sale Green Lantern will have to steal it. He tries to do this but has to fight the future Green Lantern.
Meanwhile, The Flash and Prof. Zoom go to stop the steed. The Flash gets rightly suspicious of Prof. Zoom, thinking that he set the whole situation up. This is confirmed when Hal returns and a fight breaks out.
This is a full length review detailing the plot of the below comic, all spoilers!
This issue starts with Barry Allen and Iris at the cinema when suddenly a giant rampant horse monster charges in and destroys the building. Barry becomes the Flash and saves the day but can’t stop the horse creature. So he send out a distress signal and Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Green Lantern, turns up to help. He can’t stop it either but they do find a clue, its collar says it is a Syntho-Steed, created in the 25th Century. So the pair travel to the future and find a race course that has a steed missing. What they find is that horses don’t exist in the 25th century, however they wanted something to race. A convict offered to create a racing creature from his workshop behind bars, a convict named Eobard Thawne. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to give Eobard access to a genetics lab whilst in prison? I do have some serious concerns about future prison, especially as this project was so loved by the public that they gave Eobard a full pardon and released him. So Barry and Hal go to find Eobard who is living it up, wearing an outfit that Jareth from Labyrinth would be proud of.
Eobard agrees to help out by going back to 1973 and taming the steed, but in exchange he wants a sculpture. The sculpture however is not for sale and so Green Lantern will have to steal it. I do love how Eobard keeps stealing artworks. Green Lantern agrees as there is no choice and then power beams the speedsters back to the 70’s. I never knew that the Green Lantern ring had time travel powers…. So Green Lantern goes to steal the wings, only to be stopped by another Green Lantern, the future protector of the sector. However, Hal manages to outwit this newbie and flies off with the statue only to be power beamed in the back!
Meanwhile Barry and Eobard get back to 1973 just in time as the steed is about to trample a town. They go to attack it but the steed has some sort of field that prevents their powers working properly, leaving both speedsters running in circles. Barry has a eureka moment and works out that by vibrating together they might be able to take it on (yeah, I have no idea where the logic is there). This bonds the two speedsters together temporally back to back so they can both use their speed to be even faster. The plan works and it isn’t long before they’ve knocked the steed down. As it is an artificial creature Eobard admits that it will melt under great heat and so they vibrate and stomp their feet until the creature dissolves. All the while we are privy to Eobard’s thoughts revealing that this whole thing was a set up and he sent the rampaging steed back in time.
Hal returns with the wings but upon handing them over they dissolve as well, causing Eobard to both curse and blurt out that they had ruined all the hard work he put into the scheme. He manages to stop himself mid confession and tries to run off but Barry pursues him. Barry catches him and strips him of his outfit, robbing him of his powers (as they come from his suit still at this point). Barry knocks him out and drags him back to future jail.
In the end it turns out that the sculpture didn’t survive time travel with Hal cause it was yellow and he couldn’t protect it. Hal survived as he had programmed his ring to teleport him to Barry if he got hit by a power beam. They agree to replace the sculpture with some 20th century art and all is good again.
This is a full length review detailing the plot of the below
comic, many spoilers!
Issue 79: The once and future Flash
Ok, so final part and I am totally torn. On the one hand, YAY! Eobard isn’t dead. On the other, this story is just so….. Well I think you’ll get my opinion from the review.
This issue starts with Wally West (Mk2 Flash) and Eobard Thawne (Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash) fighting among the remains of the Flash Museum. Wally’s losing but is determined to find out why all this has happened. Wally confesses that he is confused because he saw the real Barry snap Eobard’s neck all those years ago, killing him. However Eobard states that he hasn’t even met Barry yet (which is really dubious considering his origin comic). He claims that in 2460 there is no crime and all heroes have been forgotten (this also goes against the original stuff as they have a
knowledge of heroes and they have jails and crime in the future as per the 60s/70s comics).
Anyway, Wally encourages him to talk and he does. Apparently Eobard liked history, discovered the JLA and Flash was his favourite hero for being pure, noble and sacrificing himself to save mankind. So he becomes obsessed, collecting Flash memorabilia, prizing the biography he found (I still prefer the original material and not this rewrite. Everything from here diverges completely). He even has plastic surgery to look like Barry. So one day whilst in an antiques shop he finds the Cosmic Treadmill. The guy won’t sell it and so he kills him and take it. Then he gets to work replicating the original accident that gave Barry his powers, spending his fortune and loosing years of his life. But it is apparently worth it because he gets the super speed powers and plans to travel back to meet Barry and become his sidekick. So he travels through time, misses his mark and ends up in Wally’s era. Half naked and disorientated he makes it to the Flash Museum.
Eobard finds a new purpose in becoming the Flash, wanting to be a hero and join Wally and the others. So he goes to look through the rogue’s gallery only to discover that he, Eobard Thawne is actually the Flash’s worst enemy (Ok, so there are paradox issues here that upset me). This drives him crazy as he knows that his hero is destined to kill him. However, he realises that he can’t be killed if he hides and then he sees his reflection that he looks like Barry Allen and his mind snaps. Delusional, his mind retreats behind the identity of Barry Allen and thus becomes him (Meh). This does explain why the Lantern ring said he was telling the truth, because he honestly thought he was.
Wally vows to send Eobard back to his own time, though he doesn’t want to go because then he’d meet Barry and be destined to die. Eobard goes to destroy the cosmic treadmill but Wally talks him out of it, so he tries to take out Wally instead but is interrupted by Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), Max Mercury and Johnny Chambers (Johnny Quick). Hal’s ring still has the yellow impurity and thus his powers don’t really work on our yellow clad villain. The two speedsters also fail because Eobard is just faster than both of them. Hal instead drops a load of rubble on him but Eobard vibrates through it escaping whilst vowing to come back and take out Wally like he did Jay Garrick.
Wally has only just discovered that something happened to Jay and so the whole group go to visit him in hospital. Eobard broke his leg in 6 places. Wally feels that it is all his responsibility but the team aren’t really having it. He does point out who the author of the future biography is which we’re not told but does makes everyone happy. Meanwhile on the TV behind them Wally’s girlfriend Linda Park is doing an interview when she is interrupted by Eobard killing her guest and then taking her hostage. Eobard is back to his original face by this point as well, though I am not sure how.
Anyway, Wally runs to save Linda and does. Then the fight starts. Wally is at a total disadvantage cause Eobard is practically invisible to him as he is moving so fast. Wally is down but Eobard goads him and his words hit home. Wally struggles up, kisses Linda goodbye and then chases after Eobard. Wally finally lets go of his fear of replacing Barry by being as fast and thus becomes as fast, an equal match for Eobard. They fight but Wally loses his footing and Eobard is about to kill him when a miracle happens and Eobard gets struck by lightning. Wally then takes the advantage, beats the crap out of Eobard and tricks him back onto the cosmic treadmill, sending him home.
So Eobard gets home, his mind addled and not remembering his trip to the future. Though there are two problems. One is that he was missing for 48 days. And two is that he would still have speed powers. I know I mentioned this before but I totally don’t see why they had to change his whole back history and do all this when they still could have done this plot within the original canon.
Anyway, Wally is happy, the other heroes are happy and Linda is too. Jay is healing up well. And in the last pages they reveal who wrote the biography of Barry Allen, it was Iris West-Allen and in 1997 a good few years after when the comic is set.
First review in this arc can be found HERE. and the next part can be found HERE
The Flash issue 282 – Mishmash
Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash is quickly sinking towards the centre of the earth thanks to heavy matter/ gravity boots put on him by Zoomy (Eobard Thawne a.k.a. Professor Zoom/Reverse Flash) in the last issue. Barry manages to vibrate enough to stop the heat from killing him as he gets to the earth’s core. The boots aren’t core proof though and so they melt from heat releasing the Flash to be taken back to the surface by lava currents.
He pops up in the ocean only to discover Hal Jordan a.k.a. Green Lantern looking for him. Hal picks Barry up, but Barry denies wanting any further help as he wants to track down Iris’s killer himself. Because Zoomy mentioned that Iris’s killer was a matter for the history books, Barry decides that he will go to the future and look through said books.
Barry uses the cosmic treadmill and arrives in the 25th century, causing a flying car crash! He saves the car and a future policeman recognises him. Luckily he’s a fan and discovering that Flash is trying to apprehend Zoomy, he gives Barry directions to the historic library. He gets there and with the aid of a robot helper looks up Iris. It says her killer is unknown. Barry suddenly realises that Zoomy was just using this as a distraction.
Meanwhile, the chief of central city police, Paulson has just landed in a small South American country for what his family believe is a vacation. However, in reality he is on the run because it was really him who put out the hit on Frank in the last issue. Anyway, the Flash suddenly turns up and drags Paulson out of his car. He’s going to drag him to jail for being corrupt and suggests his family take his money and hit Disneyland instead. He gets Paulson to confess, though he swears that there is another man behind the whole thing, a Mr ZYX, however he never saw him. The Flash drops him off at the police station, having recorded his confession and leaves him to be locked up.
The Flash is just leaving the police station when Hal Jordan aka the Green Lantern turns up. He wants to talk to Barry but the Flash basically tells him to fuck off, even knocking him aside. Hal is confused by this and convinced that the Flash is still being effected by the Angel Dust. He tries to reach out to the Flash but is only met with violence. So Hal tries to capture him but it doesn’t work because lo and behold, it isn’t Barry at all but Zoomy in disguise. His yellow coloured suit still exerting the power to disrupt Hals green power ring. Zoomy gloats and runs off leaving Hal wondering where the real Flash is.
Turns out that the real Flash is in 2479 but about to return home. He travels through time, gets back to his treadmill when suddenly there is an explosion! To be continued.
Everything Eobard 